I actually figured this solution a while back, completely forgot about this question. In the storyboard, select the view controllers you are having issues with and, in the Attributes Inspector, change the Top Bar setting to a specific type of navigation bar rather than Inferred. This keeps the bar visible at all times for the corresponding UIViewController
I assume, of course, you have a segue path that contains a UINavigationController somewhere before your respective controllers. I'm not sure if it would work without one.